


I bet you Thought I had a Title for This

by memeberd



Category: Dan Vs.
Genre: Dan and his niece go on a roadtrip, Gen, Tags will change as the fanfic is updated
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-07
Updated: 2016-08-07
Packaged: 2018-07-29 20:20:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,560
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7698127
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/memeberd/pseuds/memeberd
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jamie's family is about to move out of L.A. and today is the last day she can call her uncle. Elise assumed Dan didn’t want anything to do with her daughter, Chris assumed he must’ve died without anyone realising he disappeared, but the girl never gave up on her grumpy uncle.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> If you end up enjoying this bookmark it or something because eventually I'll figure out what the title of this fanfic is gonna be

“Wake up, princess!” Chris tenderly called from beside Jamie’s bed. The dark, lanky girl rolled away, whining for her dad to leave. It was eight o’clock in the morning, didn’t he have other adult stuff to do? “Come on, Jamie!” Chris encouraged her to turn the other way, gently pulling her onto her back by her shoulder. “Your mom made breakfast, remember what happened last time you didn’t get up when you needed to and your mom made breakfast?”

He ate it all last time...

Jamie sat up, her face scrunched as tight as possible and her orange mass of cloud hair was twisted about like she’d gone through a tornado. Her head slowly turned toward Chris who was trying not to laugh at how cute she was when she was all ruffled and tired. “Bring it to me?” She croaked.

“Oh no, no breakfast in bed this time. Today’s very important, pumpkin.” Chris said excitedly as he picked up his little girl and headed for the kitchen with her. That’s right, her parents were going to take one more look at the new house they’d picked out while she said goodbye to all her friends. Jamie was used to going about things by herself, she thought of herself as very mature for her age, though most kids do. Jamie’s eyes gradually blinked open over Chris’ shoulder before she was set in her chair at the dining table.

“You ready to move, Jamie?” Elise asked over her plate.

“I dunno...” Jamie mumbled quietly. “I guess.” She didn’t sound too excited. Jamie had a bite of blueberry pancake, her favorite, and chewed slowly.

Chris and Elise shared concerned glances.

“We know you’re not excited about it honey, but we promise once we’re all settled in you’ll love it.” Elise petted her daughter’s carob hand over the table, smiling at her concernedly.

“I don’t get why we have to move so far away,” Jamie complained. 

“There are better job opportunities for your father,” Elise reasoned.

“I’ve heard good things about the school over there.” Chris added.

“There’s a big backyard and lots of trees too!” Elise said. “You can climb all of them when we move in!” That was a promising offer, but…

“... How will uncle Dan feel about us moving away?” Jamie asked.

Chris and Elise shared another look. “Honey,” Elise was still trying to smile. “We haven’t seen Dan in three years now, I’m sure he’ll feel... _indifferent_ about it.”

Jamie frowned, looking hurt. She shifted her focus to her dad. “Dad, can we call him today?”

Jamie had prodded her father to call Dan for the three years he never visited. They’d call on holidays, birthdays, but he would never answer. Elise assumed Dan didn’t want anything to do with her daughter, Chris assumed he must’ve died without anyone realising he disappeared, but the girl never gave up on her grumpy uncle. “Okay, pumpkin, but please don’t be disappointed if he doesn’t answer again.” Jamie's father finally said. Why wouldn’t he answer today? Today was even more important than Christmas, or her birthday! 

“He’ll answer,” She said knowingly, trying to stuff the rest of the pancake in her mouth in one go.

“Smaller bites, Jamie!” Elise chided.

Jamie disappointedly spat her pancake back onto the plate. Chris proudly stuffed an entire pancake into his mouth and wiggled his eyebrows at Jamie. Jamie gasped and frowned at her mother. “Aw, mom!” Jamie whined.

“Chris!!” Elise shouted.

Chris gulped. “Sorry.”

\---

As Jamie was getting dressed, she heard the car keys jingling in the livingroom. She darted out of her room and right into her father. “No! You guys can’t leave yet! We haven’t called uncle Dan!!” Jamie cried.

“I’ll be in the car, hero.” Elise said before exiting through the front door. Chris gave Jamie a guilty look before kneeling to his daughter’s level. He sighed.

“Pumpkin, I know this is going to be hard for you to understand, but, Dan’s gone for good.” He said sadly, resting a hand on her shoulder.

“You don’t know that! We didn’t call him yet!” Jamie’s voice began to raise in volume.

“Shh, give me a hug, pumpkin.” Chris hugged his daughter tight. “I miss him too, I miss him a whole lot.” He whispered. “We’ll talk about it later, okay?”

Jamie nodded, trying to swallow back some tears. “Okay,”

Chris let go of Jamie and stood slowly. “Wanna come with us, pumpkin?” He asked.

“... I think I wanna stay home,” Jamie said.

“Alright sweetheart. I love you.”

“I love you too, dad.” Jamie was staring at the floor.

Chris left and the door clicked shut. He and Elise were definitely going to talk about this the whole time they were looking at the house.

\---

After Jamie had delivered the news to her friends that she was going to be moving out of L.A., she slowly walked home, hands in her pockets. Jamie arrived home and dramatically swung the door open. “Mom, dad, I’m home.” She announced, leaning against the closed door. No one responded to her arrival. They weren’t home yet? “Mom!” Jamie called, going into the living room. It was empty. Jamie ran into the kitchen. “Dad!” She went into their bedroom, the bathroom, the laundry room, the whole house was empty! The sun was almost gone for the day, if her parents had other plans, they would have called her by now! Jamie hopped onto the couch and picked up the home phone, dialing her parent’s numbers to receive no answer from either phone. Something was wrong, someone had kidnapped Jamie’s parents! She wasn’t going to sit and do nothing about it, she had to save them! And Jamie knew who could help her.


	2. Chapter 2

Jamie grabbed her butterfly backpack from the previous school year and stuffed the remainder of her orange cream sodas into the bag, next, she set her bag on the table and made three jelly sandwiches and packed those into her bag as well. Better make another one for good measure. Jamie grabbed socks, a jacket, a flashlight, but the bag was still incomplete. She needed something special from the garage. When Dan used to visit still, her parents and Dan would go into the garage and come out with something they needed. Whatever she really needed was gonna be in there. She tied her jacket around her waist and slung the backpack over her shoulder and headed for the garage. The door opened slowly, and she came in as soon as it lifted high enough for her to fit through the entrance. The garage appeared relatively empty. Jamie dug around anyway, there had to be something useful in here, a weapon, some means of transportation, but all she found was her father’s gardening equipment.

Jamie sighed in distress, leaning against a tall toolbox that loudly toppled over and scared the kid. The door to the compartments of the toolbox crashed open, and alot of dusty old items fell out. Jamie got a good look at them. _Jackpot!!_

\---

A lovely day of absolutely nothing had come to an end, Dan’s cramped apartment was darker than the deepest pit of hell, and that was just how he liked it. Dan sighed heavily as he layed down on the thin futon, it really wasn’t much, but it was a good deal if you considered how much he was paying for rent.

He closed his eyes, the sound of heavy rain lulled him half asleep. 

\---

Jamie found herself in front of a poorly aged door with chipped red paint and a faded old number 11. She looked back down at the tracking device she’d uncovered in the garage. This was supposed to be the right place… She knocked on the door once and it opened, the creaking noise it made startled her. Jamie entered the dark apartment, it was darker than outside, she turned on her flashlight and shined it onto her surroundings. She was in a tiny apartment stuffed with boxes, there were clothes and trash strewn about, unneeded shelves and dressers, and a few pictures hanging that she couldn’t see through the glare of her flashlight, there were a few dead houseplants as well. Jamie stepped on something, she retracted her foot and aimed her flashlight at it, it was a dream catcher. She picked it up and looked at it closer. A few strings were broken, and a feather was missing. 

Jamie heard someone toss in their bed in one of the two other rooms in the apartment. Jamie set down the dreamcatcher and smiled.

“Uncle Dan!” She called, heading toward the room the noise came from.

Dan’s heart nearly leapt out of his chest. Was he having some strange nightmare about Chris and Elise’s kid? He sat up and ran his fingers through his poorly kept, and now graying, hair. Dan heard footsteps, and he saw someone small standing in his doorway. She was really here, so much for a relaxing day of nothing. “Jamie? How did you get here?” He growled sleepily before she tackled him.

“I found you!!” She laughed. “I found this thing, in the garage! Mom has you chipped for some reason and I found this and I followed it and it lead me to you!!”

He stared into her warm chocolate eyes in disbelief, too shocked to say anything. How long had it been? Three years? And now she’s found him on her own somehow?? “Okay, that’s great honey, but it’s time for you to go home now.” Dan said, picking up his niece by the scruff of her shirt and heading for the door.

“What?! NO! I just got here!!” Jamie protested, kicking her legs around.

“You shouldn’t even be here! Your parents are probably worried sick about you!”

“No wait, you can’t take me home- that’s why I came here!”

Dan stopped in his tracks before setting his niece down. “What do you mean?” He asked.

“It’s a long story..” 

Dan scoffed. “I knew it,” He muttered angrily.

“Huh?”

Dan crouched to Jamie’s level and softly set his hand on her shoulder. “Your mom’s an overbearing parent, isn’t she? She’s abusing you and Chris is too rubber spined to do anything, so you ran away from home to live with me instead, is that it?”

What?? Jamie gave her uncle a funny look. “No! We’re moving away, mom and dad went to go look at the house and they never came back.”

“They abandoned you!?” 

“I called both of their phones and they haven’t answered, I think someone kidnapped them!”

“Oh. Well, serves ‘em right for ignoring me!” Dan crossed his arms.

“Ignoring you?” 

“Don’t play dumb with me, kid! You and your stupid parents never came to visit me or anything, for three years! Did you guys forget about me or something? I’m pretty hard to forget!!”

“Uncle Dan, we haven’t been ignoring you, we were calling you on holidays!” Jamie said.

“I haven’t payed my phone bill in years! Chris should know that!!!” Dan explained. His eyes darted to the floor for a moment, his expression changing from fury to something that resembled loneliness before looking back up. “Why didn’t you guys ever check up on me or anything?”

“I mean, we did try to visit you once but…” Jamie looked at their surroundings. “Looks like you moved.”

Dan facepalmed. He forgot to tell them he was being evicted from Paradisio. 

“And, why didn’t you visit us? You just stopped, and then we didn’t see you again.”

Dan crossed his arms. “I stopped because…” Dan mumbled.

Jamie couldn’t hear her uncle, which was the intention. “Huh?”

“I was getting evicted!” Dan snapped.

“Evicted..?” Jamie had never heard the word before.

Dan was really embarrassed now. “Kicked out! I couldn’t make rent so they kicked me out. I had to move everything myself so I was busy.”

“That’s it? But you ask my parents for help so much, why didn’t you-”

“Hey, how about maybe you shut up kid.” Dan scowled at Jamie before sitting down on the couch. “Listen, I’ll help you find your dumb parents okay?”

Jamie smiled and hugged her uncle tight. “I knew you’d help me!!”

“Yeah, yeah.” Dan received the hug stiffly but didn’t reject it. “Now, where were you guys planning on moving?”

“Uhhh,” Jamie thought for a moment. “I’m pretty sure our house’s in Bakersfield.” 

“BAKERSFIELD?!” Dan roared, he stood up for a second before gripping his head. Dan sat back down and growled in pain, Jamie watched him with wide eyes. “Do you have any idea how far away that is?! That’s so far away that’s--” He growled again, wiping his face nervously.

Jamie rushed to her panicking uncle.

They were going to leave him for good! They were going to leave him to rot!!

“Uncle Dan it’s okay!” Jamie cried, softly petting her uncle’s arm. “Now that I found you we’ll take you with us!” She assured him. Dan stopped fussing and looked at his niece through his fingers. She was smiling at him. With them, ok, he was willing to believe that.

“I packed us some jelly sandwiches,” Jamie removed her backpack and held it up. “do you want one?”

Dan let out a slow sigh and his hands dropped down from his face.

“Sure, kid.” A sandwich consisting of only jelly was rather peculiar, but Dan hadn’t eaten unexpired food in God knows how long. “You pack any drinks too?”

“Only the rest of my orange cream soda.” Jamie smiled.

“Now we’re talkin, hand me one of those too and we’ll leave tomorrow morning.”

“Tomorrow??” Jamie whined.

“Jamie. I’m tired,” Dan’s voice broke. “we leave tomorrow.” He stated, taking a bite of the jelly sandwich his niece handed to him. It was probably the most delicious thing he’d consumed in months. “Hm, and speaking of tiredness,” Dan stood up. “I’ll get you a blanket, you’ll sleep on the couch.”

Jamie took one look at Dan’s couch and was instantly under the impression that it was full of garbage instead of stuffing. “You’re making me sleep on that?” She gave her uncle a disgusted look.

“I sleep in my bed, guests sleep on the couch. That’s the rules.” Dan tossed his niece an old blanket. She caught it and scoffed. “Don’t give me that,” Dan scolded. “gimme the soda you promised.” Jamie’s brow furrowed a little but she smiled as she handed her uncle a soda bottle from her backpack. “Night, Jamie.” Dan said, heading for his room with the bottle. A loud PSHH was heard from Dan’s room. The soda sprayed everywhere. “Of course.” Dan growled, tossing the wasted bottle on the ground and plopping back down into his futon. 

Dan could sense Jamie enter his bedroom and get closer until the weight shifted so slightly signifying a little girl had just trespassed on his futon. She flopped down next to him and slung an arm over her uncle. Dan, again, responded coldly and awkwardly to the affection but he didn’t scold her for breaking the guest rules he made up; she was his niece after all and, even if he was still angry that he hadn’t seen her for three years, he… Felt warmly about her. That is, of course, because she seemed to feel warmly about him too.

“G’night, uncle Dan.” Jamie whispered.

“Night, kiddo.”


End file.
